The following is my third attempt to send this.
Chris W3KD


Greetings. I am forwarding for your review the final response of the Air Force Frequency Management Agency (dated June 1, 2007) to ARRL's proposal (sent April 23, 2007) for a means of resolving interference to Pave Paws radars at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, MA and at Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento, CA in the 420-450 MHz band.

This is a favorable result, so far, on an issue that could otherwise have gone very badly, since the Air Force had, prior to our involvement, asked the FCC to shut down the 100 or so 440 MHz repeaters in northern California and the fifteen near Cape Cod. Doubtless, they would have prevailed except that we provided an alternative plan that should be better outcome.

Ed Hare is now engaged in running a huge number of Longley-Rice propagation studies for each subject repeater, and Dan Henderson is doing yeoman service as the point man for the repeater owners. It is critical in this process that the Air Force have a single point of contact in this matter, and we have Riley Hollingsworth's assurance that he, and his associate, George Dillon, at FCC's Enforcement Bureau, will cooperate with us in making sure there are no rogue actions by any of the repeater licensees and trustees.

Dan is preparing a letter which will go out imminently to the repeater owners, and it will include a copy of the June 1, Air Force letter and our letter to the Air Force dated April 23. This is a short fuse issue, however, since the Air Force, essentially unilaterally, has imposed three critical deadlines: June 15 for the Longley Rice study results to be provided to the Air Force by ARRL; June 15 for the Air Force to provide its engineering data and recommendations to ARRL for maximum required power for each repeater; Jun 30 for a joint review of the data, calculations and mitigation proposals for each repeater; and August 1 for final interference resolution. 

This timetable is not exactly as we had proposed, but it is a not unworkable one from the perspective of Henderson, Hare, Rinaldo and me, I believe.
 
We are hoping for a great deal of cooperation from the repeater owners, and the ARRL laboratory will carefully scrutinize the technical data and recommendations from the Air Force to make sure that any proposals are not unnecessarily burdensome on the subject repeaters. The concern, of course, is that some repeaters, located close to the radar antenna, might not be able to continue operation where they are. We will have to consider possible remedies for those displaced repeaters so as to permit rebanding or relocation, and perhaps some means of offsetting the costs of the remedial action.

Let me or Dan Henderson know any questions you have on this, and kudos to Paul Rinaldo, Ed Hare and Dan for their good, fast work on this difficult project.

73, Chris W3KD  

-----Original Message-----
From: Moorefield Fred Civ AFFMA
To: w3kd@aol.com; prinaldo@arrl.org; dsumner@arrl.org; w5zn@arrl.org; k1ki@arrl.org; w6rgg@arrl.org
Cc: Klabunde Gary Col AFFMA ; Sulick Joe Civ AFFMA ; Bloxom Graham Maj AFFMA/DO ; Bruhl Jay Lt Col AFFMA/DO
Sent: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 4:31 pm
Subject: AF Counter-Proposal To Resolve HAM Radio Interference to PAVE PAWS Radar

Chris, Paul, and All,

As promised, attached is the AF counter to the ARRL proposal to begin to
immediately address and ultimately resolve the interference from certain
Amateur Radio repeater stations operating in the 420-450 MHz band to
Pave Paws radar stations in the areas of Beale and Otis Air Force Bases.

 
We look forward to working this issue with you and appreciate the
opportunity to do so in a cooperative, informal manner. 
 
If you have any concerns with our counter-proposal please let me know
and we can address those concerns immediately.
 
Have a great weekend,

Regards, 
Fred
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